The headquarters of Colombia's Ministry of Defense (Ministerio de Defensa Nacional) is a PEB Corp Group project: 39,000 m² (about 420,000 sq ft) of industrialized steel construction, delivered in 8 months. SmartBrix Construction executed it as a turnkey project, with structural engineering and BIM coordination by PEB Corp. The structure was designed to NSR-10. It is one of the group's largest institutional projects in Colombia and shows how prefabrication serves demanding public infrastructure.
- Area: 39,000 m²
- Schedule: 8 months
- Building type: Institutional / government building
- Country: Colombia
- Design code: NSR-10
- Delivery model: Turnkey (SmartBrix Construction) · Structural engineering and BIM (PEB Corp)
The challenge: scale, security, and schedule
The project combined three demands: a 39,000 m² building, the architectural and security requirements of a government headquarters, and structural design to Colombia's NSR-10 seismic code. On top of that came the schedule pressure of public works, where every additional month of construction carries an institutional and financial cost.
The goal was to deliver a large building with the quality and traceability an institutional client expects, without the long schedules of traditional on-site construction.
The solution: BIM engineering and industrialized steel
SmartBrix Construction executed the project on a turnkey basis, and PEB Corp provided structural engineering and BIM coordination from start to finish. The BIM model let the team coordinate the steel structure with the MEP systems from the design stage. It also caught clashes before fabrication and produced the fabrication data for the prefabricated components.
PEB Corp sized and verified the industrialized steel structure to NSR-10, so fabrication could advance in parallel with site work. Fabricating under quality control and erecting to a planned sequence is what compresses the schedule of a building this size.
Outcome: 39,000 m² in 8 months
The 39,000 m² building was delivered in 8 months, turnkey and designed to NSR-10. For an institutional headquarters of this scale, the schedule shows what industrialized construction adds. BIM engineering, steel fabrication, and planned erection bring large public infrastructure into operation on a controlled schedule, without compromising code compliance. A reference project’s area and delivery period describe that case; they do not guarantee another building’s schedule.
The project is part of the PEB Corp Group's work in industrialized steel construction in Colombia. There, NSR-10 design and BIM methodology are the working standard for institutional, educational, and industrial clients.
See also the Ministry of Defense HQ project in the SmartBrix Construction portfolio.
The PEB Corp Group has been delivering projects since 2009. On some of our projects, the cold-formed steel structure was fabricated at the group plant (NewCon Steel®, in operation since 2018); on others, the group carried out the installation.